Greg Capullo Faces The Joker

by Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are the DC 52 golden boys. Their run on Batman and the Court of Owls arc was met with critical acclaim and quickly made the relaunched Bat book a best-seller. With The Court of Owls behind him, Batman will face off against an even bigger threat this October- The Joker. Last seen without a face in Detective Comics, Joker will return in “Death of the Family” to cause chaos and try Batman and the Bat Family like never before. CBR spoke with artist Greg Capullo about his run and the upcoming Joker arc.

Capullo got a chance to draw a Joker of sorts early on in his run. Batman fought his way through Arkham with a Joker that turned out to be Nightwing (Dick Grayson) in disguise. When asked if he had an idea he’d be doing an actual Joker story:

No. Never. This was a surprise. I hadn’t read comics in a while, and so I didn’t even know Joker’s face had been severed off until pretty recently really. When I learned everything, I went, “I guess we do kind of have to blow this whole thing up and start again.” It was a nice surprise. And I’m sure there are other things in Scott’s book than Batman stories. It frightens me to think what he’s cooking up there. [Laughs]

Capullo has said on several occasions that the new look feels like the Joker meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which many people felt meant the story would be a straight horror movie type. Capullo says this isn’t necessarily true:

It takes on a horror element just because his face has been torn off. His new face has this makeshift element where he’s holding it on. In that respect, a lot of people have heard me say that it’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Joker,” and they go, “Ohhhh, it’s going to be a horror thing.” But the story really isn’t so much “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” as it is a psychological terror. That’s what we’ve all come to expect from a Joker story. The essence of the Joker has not changed. It’s amped up in the fact that he’s become hands on a bit more in this, which speaks to the level of anger he has. If you want a job done right, you do it yourself. And so we’re seeing Joker act at a level that he never has in the past. In that respect, it does have some horror elements to it, but it’s still a cool Joker that scares your mind more than anything.

While the story may not be pure horror, the Joker’s look sure seems to be that way. The makeshift way Joker reattaches his face will make for some great visual opportunities for Capullo:

[T]here’s a lot of possibilities with his face that I personally plan to mess around with. I’ve established the main look with the belt in the back and the hooks in the mouth kind of holding everything in place, but think about that. You move in different ways, and that skin can shift on you. Maybe a hook busts loose, and part of your face is flapping free. There’s only possibilities for me to capitalize on depending on the story Scott provides me. I can always accentuate on a particular scene by adding little flourishes there. I’ve even talked about the fact with Scott that being that the face isn’t on ice in Gotham P.D. evidence anymore, it’d start to decay, right? And things that decay stinks a bit and attracts flies, and it might be cool for little touches with flies swimming around his head here or there. It can change is what I’m trying to say. It’ll probably look different through the story than the prototype face you’ve seen so far.

To read the full interview where Capullo talks a little more about “Death of the Family” and die-cut covers for the arc, click here. Capullo has done an outstanding job with Batman so far, and his Twitter teases for the next arc is enough to get anyone excited. What do you think about the upcoming arc? Are you ready to see the Joker’s new look?

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